Barclays Boosts Ball (NYSE:BALL) Price Target to $72.00

Ball (NYSE:BALL) had its price target upped by stock analysts at Barclays from $71.00 to $72.00 in a research report issued on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 4.53% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial increased their price target on Ball from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. TheStreet upgraded shares of Ball from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Friday, March 8th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Ball from $69.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Ball from $74.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Ball from $59.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $69.23.

Ball Trading Up 0.4 %

BALL stock traded up $0.29 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $68.88. The company had a trading volume of 482,810 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,899,185. Ball has a 52 week low of $42.81 and a 52 week high of $71.32. The stock has a market cap of $21.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.18, a PEG ratio of 4.42 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $65.82 and its 200 day moving average price is $58.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Ball (NYSE:BALL) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The company reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.56 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.87 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. Ball had a return on equity of 21.79% and a net margin of 31.42%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.69 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Ball will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ball declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, April 24th that permits the company to buyback 40,000,000 shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ball news, insider Daniel William Fisher bought 3,869 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 14th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $64.56 per share, for a total transaction of $249,782.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 111,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,222,068.96. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.81% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ball by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 21,062,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,211,527,000 after purchasing an additional 998,527 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Ball by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,853,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $291,408,000 after acquiring an additional 72,585 shares during the last quarter. Putnam Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ball by 39.5% during the fourth quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 5,815,825 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,526,000 after buying an additional 1,645,909 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Ball by 3.8% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,138,780 shares of the company’s stock valued at $156,248,000 after acquiring an additional 115,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jensen Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Ball by 3.1% in the third quarter. Jensen Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,126,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $155,662,000 after buying an additional 95,415 shares during the period. 86.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Ball

Ball Corporation supplies aluminum packaging products for the beverage, personal care, and household products industries in the United States, Brazil, and internationally. The company manufactures and sells aluminum beverage containers to fillers of carbonated soft drinks, beer, energy drinks, and other beverages.